


your wake to remember you by

by neenswrites



Category: Free!
Genre: Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, M/M, Mythical Creature AU, SofA 2020, mermaid au, mermaid haru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25774624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neenswrites/pseuds/neenswrites
Summary: Haru frowned, and looked down at his tail. "But I'm a mermaid.""Well, I know that now!"-When he's nine, Makoto meets a mermaid named Haru. From then on out, his life is never the same.
Relationships: Nanase Haruka/Tachibana Makoto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 63
Collections: Seasons of Anime Exchange 2020





	your wake to remember you by

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kissecat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissecat/gifts).



Makoto stared out into the ocean as his cousins played in the waves and his uncles and aunts all chatted around him. He’d smiled politely when his cousins invited him to play with them, shaking his head as he worked hard to make his trepidation concealed. 

It wasn’t common to live in a seaside city like theirs and have a fear of the ocean.

Makoto sighed for the umpteenth time. Most days he didn’t really care about his fear, but at times like these where everyone seemed to only find joy in the water, he did tend to feel a little lonely. 

Well, it wasn’t like there weren’t other things he could do at the beach.

Standing up, he wasn’t really surprised when no one stopped him from walking away from their spot. He was younger than most of his cousins, but he was a very self-sufficient only child. Besides he was going to be an older brother soon, his mother so round she looked at if she was going to pop. Older brothers had to be responsible.

So Makoto wandered along the shore, wandered until he couldn’t even see his family in the distance. He would feel more nervous, but it was all one way. He could just follow the coast back when he got bored.

Sort of like he was already starting to become. There weren’t many shells, most of them cracked and shattered and already blending in with the sand. The water was pretty enough but it wasn’t any different than what he’d seen when he’d been sitting and watching his cousins play.

Makoto sighed, prepared to go back to his family, when something caught his attention from this corner of his eyes. It was a flash of blue, the prettiest blue he’d ever seen, and he turned his head quickly to try and see exactly what it was.

Instead, he found a boy, a couple meters away from the shore, floating on his back in the ocean. Makoto’s eyes widened, and he looked around the beach. He didn’t see a single other person, and the boy looked around his age.

Where was his family? Before Makoto could think on it further, he noticed the boy begin to slowly sink into the water.

His heart stopped. The boy was drowning

Makoto’s voice tightened as he considered calling out to the boy, but what would that do for him. Makoto looked around again, as if some adult had miraculously appeared on the beach in the few seconds since he last looked. He thought about running back to his family, finding any of them to help save the boy.

But Makoto knew it would be too late. He wasn’t fast enough to run there and back, and by the time he found someone it would be too late, it would be just like the time--

The boy’s head sunk under the water.

Makoto was moving before he even registered it. One moment he was staring in horror at the poor boy, the next he was kicking his sandals off and dashing into the water. 

It wasn’t that he wasn’t scared. Makoto was absolutely petrified. But if he - someone who already knew how to swim - was feeling this scared, how must that other boy be feeling? Besides, there was no one else around. Makoto had to do something. 

He swam out to about where he last remembered seeing the boy, before diving into the water to see if he could see him. The salt stung at his eyes, and he fought the urge to squint past it. The water wasn’t as clear as he’d hoped it would be, and Makoto began to feel panic well up in his chest.

What if, in all his hesitation, he had still been too late?

Then, as suddenly as it happened before, he caught a brilliant flash of blue in his peripherals. He turned his head, the movement slower underwater, and he was surprised to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring at him. 

It was the boy!

Makoto swam forward in one powerful burst, and had the boy in his arms in the next moment. The stranger was thrashing as he did this, but Makoto wasn’t surprised. He was probably still freaking out about nearly drowning. Kicking his legs, he propelled him and the boy up towards the surface. The moment they broke through, Makoto gasped for breath before turning to look at the other boy. 

It was only then that he noticed several odd things about him. 

His skin had little patches on them, both around his eyes and on his shoulder. They were blue, and made Makoto wonder if he had some weird powder on his body. His ears were weird too, they were pointed and had what looked like webbing hanging from them. Finally, were his eyes. He had thought they’d been blue before, but now he realized they were bluer than he’d ever seen. 

Makoto felt something like dread creep up his stomach. This only intensified when he felt something scaly brush his leg, and then the boy opened his mouth and his top row of teeth were completely sharpened. Makoto tried back paddling away from the boy, but the stranger grabbed the tops of his arms with a strength Makoto hadn't known someone their age could have.

Makoto screamed. 

The boy slapped his hand across his mouth. “Why are you doing that?” the strange boy - if he could even call him a boy - asked with a furrow of his brow. Makoto’s eyes widened. He could talk.

Makoto said nothing, both because he was too scared, and because his mouth was still covered. The boy seemed to realize at least the latter, and he slowly removed his hand from Makoto with narrowed eyes.

Makoto swallowed, but at least didn't scream this time. "Why am I doing what?"

The boy gave him a flat look. "The loud thing you were doing. With your mouth."

It took Makoto a moment to understand what he meant. "You mean screaming?"

The boy shrugged. "Maybe. It was loud, and it hurt."

He pointed at his ears, and Makoto's heart began racing as he was reminded yet again that his boy wasn't human. He wondered what to do, how to get out of the situation, if this was perhaps some very realistic dream, when the boy spoke again.

"What's your name?" His head titled to the side in curiosity, but Makoto was even more nervous now. 

There were many, many, many rumors and legends about mermaids. Makoto hadn't thought any of them true, but now faced with one, all he could think about were the ones that said mermaids could steal your name.

Makoto tried not to let his fear show, though he was sure he was beginning to shake."What do you want it for?"

The boy looked incredibly confused at the question. "Because you swam after me?" He seemed to finally take in how jittery Makoto was and he pursed his lips. He looked away from him, before muttering, "...my name is Haru. Well, it's technically Haruka, but I like Haru."

Makoto blinked. The name was so...normal. And pretty. 

Though he supposed the boy - Haru - was pretty, if only in a supernatural sort of way. Makoto contemplated giving Haru his name. Technically, if he wanted to, Haru could've killed him already. He could probably breathe underwater and drown him with no problem, and his teeth were sharp enough that he could probably eat him. 

Okay, not the best thoughts for when he was trying to calm himself down.

But Haru hadn't done any of those things. He was just sort of staring at Makoto. He really didn't seem all that dangerous.

So Makoto summoned up all of his courage. "My name is Makoto. Tachibana Makoto."

Haru mouthed his name carefully before he nodded so himself. "Makoto. Okay. What did you swim after me?"

Haru sounded so bored asking that Makoto finally realized that he hadn't actually been drowning. He must've been quite taken back to see Makoto hop in the water right after him. Makoto felt a blush start to rise on his cheeks. "Um, it was because I thought you were drowning."

Haru frowned, and looked down at his tail. "But I'm a mermaid."

"Well, I know that now!" Makoto groaned, and he wished he could borrow his face in his hands to hide his embarrassment.

"Oh." Haru looked slightly more relaxed, and it wasn't until then that Makoto realized how tense he'd been. Even the grip he had on Makoto's arm wasn't as tight anymore. "I thought you knew. You knew and you were trying to take me."

Makoto's eyes widened. "No, no, no, no, no! I wasn't trying to take you! Where would I even put you? My house doesn't have room because my new siblings are coming in."

Makoto clamped his mouth shut, realizing then how much he was oversharing. Haru studied him, his unnatural blue eyes both unnerving and hypnotizing Makoto. He chanced a glance down, and realized they were the exact shade as his tail.

Huh.

"You're interesting," Haru said, as if he wasn't a mythical creature people had fantasized about for ages. Makoto just shrugged, and offered a shaky smile.

Haru opened and closed his mouth several times, each time giving Makoto a glimpse of his teeth, before he finally said, "I'm here. A lot. If you ever want to come back."

Makoto's first instinct was to say no. Maybe lie and say maybe so he could get away, and then run all the way back to his family without looking back. But then Makoto remembered when he'd first seen Haru. How he'd been floating in the ocean, no one else around, and looking so alone. 

Makoto frowned. He knew what it was like to not have any friends. No one deserved that - even if they were a mermaid.

"Okay." Haru looked at him in surprise, and Makoto tried not to let that shake his fleeting confidence. "I'll come back. I live close by anyway."

Haru didn't smile, but his eyes lit up in a way that was breathtaking. It was almost enough to make all of Makoto's worries melt away.

A beat of silence.

"Could you also please let go of my arm now?

-

From that point on, Makoto and Haru grew up together.  It had been a decade since they first met, and in those 10 years they had fallen into a routine. 

Makoto would come to the beach every Friday after school. He would tell his parents he was just helping out with one club or the other, but he would really be meeting Haru in that secluded corner of the beach where they first met.

Haru would come only a few minutes after Makoto got there - though Makoto had no clue how he kept track of time - and they would tell each other about how their weeks went.

They also helped each other out in ways no one could begin to understand.

When Makoto had been in middle school, Haru had gotten in a fight with some of his other friends from his pod. Makoto hadn’t known Rin and Ikuya at the time, but Haru had been so upset about the fight that he’d barely spoken the entire meeting.

And that was okay. Makoto talked, distracted Haru with stories of his friend Nagisa, Kisumi, and Asahi. He made him smile when he told him about the cats that lingered outside of his house. He laughed when he told him about another incident with the twins.

After that, Haru talked to Makoto. He didn’t talk much, but he told Makoto how he was both hurt by the fight, and scared he had really hurt his friends. Makoto listened and promised Haru that if he reached out to them and told him the same thing he’d just told Makoto, that everything would be fine. 

The next week, Haru came to their meeting beaming.

In the middle of high school, Haru helped Makoto with something too - although more inadvertently. 

He had gotten stuck by a lost fisherman’s net. It would’ve been fine, except it had him tangled with large, jagged rocks. 

Makoto had barely managed to catch sight of him, and when he had, he felt panic. This wasn’t the same as confusing Haru as a child drowning. He was in trouble. He was in pain.

He was further out into the ocean than Makoto had ever been in his life. 

Makoto didn’t think twice about diving in.

It had been rough. It had been difficult to untangle Haru from the net, and Makoto had nearly slipped under a few times from the exertion. 

But they’d managed. As soon as Haru was free, he slipped his arms around Makoto’s middle and swam them both immediately to shore.

“That was reckless,” Haru panted after depositing Makoto on the sand. “And for no reason. It would’ve gotten out eventually.”

“You’re bleeding,” Makoto replied, not even paying attention to Haru’s words. Not even noticing the way Haru’s eyes widened as he looked at him. “Let me run to the corner store, and I can get something for it.”

Haru looked down at the point where his skin met his tail, and wasn’t surprised to see he was in fact bleeding. He frowned, but at Makoto’s words, not the pain. He would be fine, there was no need for Makoto to run anywhere.

Haru looked up again, ready to say as much to Makoto, but the other boy was already on his feet and beaming down at him. 

“I’ll be right back, okay?” Makoto reached down his hand, and Haru found himself reaching up for some inexplicable reason. Makoto looked surprised as Haru gripped his hand, but only a moment later he was smiling. “I promise!”

Makoto was off then, running as fast as his bare feet could take him, and Haru knew then he always wanted to be by Makoto’s side.

When Makoto returned, pressing gauze gently into Haru’s skin, he told Haru, “I think I’m going to join my school’s swim club.”

Haru’s eyes opened in surprise. “But you don’t like swimming.”

“I actually do,” Makoto confessed softly. “But I’ve been too scared to compete. I thought my fear would make me freeze up at the worst moment. But after today…” Makoto paused, looking out at the sun setting over the ocean before turning back to Haru with a grin. “After today, I think I can do anything.”

Haru’s breath caught. He was certain. He wanted to be with Makoto forever.

So when the next year rolled around, he was absolutely devastated. 

“What do you mean you're leaving?” Haru demanded.

It was night time, much later than they’d ever met before. Makoto had requested it, and Haru had thought nothing of it. 

He was wrong.

“College is something that I have to do,” Makoto explained for what felt like the millionth time, but it still didn’t make sense to Haru. He didn’t know what college was, he didn’t know why Makoto had to go, and he couldn’t understand why Makoto would leave him.

“Why do you have to?” Haru asked. “Is someone making you?”

“No, Haru, I want to.” Haru’s eyes widened at the words. Makoto wanted to go. He wanted to go where Haru had no chance of being with him. He felt his heart begin to race, and his mouth go dry, and his eyes start to sting. 

He was a mermaid. His eyes were never supposed to sting. So why were they doing that now?

“What?” Haru whispered.

“Haru, I--”

Just then, colors exploded above them with a bang. Fireworks are what Makoto had called them. They lit up the sky, and lit up the expression on Makoto’s face as he looked down at Haru from his place on the ground. 

Haru swore he saw pity. He dove back into the water before the next firework exploded so he wouldn’t have to see it again.

-

Makoto frowned as he stood at the corner of the beach that had become like a second home to him. 

It was the third week that Haru hadn’t shown up.

Makoto wasn’t even just checking on Fridays. Ever since Haru didn’t show up that first Saturday after the New Year's incident, Makoto came to the beach everyday to see if Haru would show up. 

So far, he hadn’t had any luck.

But it wasn’t like he knew what he was going to say if Haru did appear. 

Makoto wanted to go to college. He wanted to study both human anatomy and marine biology. He wanted to learn as closely as he could about Haru and other mermaids, and do what he could to help them. 

Makoto wanted a life that he could build around Haru, maybe build with Haru if the other boy allowed him. He just needed a degree to do that. 

“You really are here.”

Makoto jolted at the voice, and he whipped his head to see Haru barely peeking his head out the water. Haru was barely a foot away from him, but he was stubbornly hiding most of his body in the water.

“Haru!”

“Rin told me that you’d been coming every day, even though I told him to stay out of it,” Haru continued with a small pout. Makoto laughed breathily at the expression, and Haru softened a moment before frowning all over again. “Why are you here?”

Makoto’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “What do you mean ‘why am I here’? I’m here to see you, of course.”

“To see me.” Haru’s frown deepened, and his eyes dropped. “Or to tell me that you’re leaving.”

Makoto’s shoulder sagged at how sad Haru looked, and crouched on the sand, as close to the water as he could, trying to make eye contact with Haru.

Haru sank a little deeper in response, and Makoto sighed.

“I know it might seem strange to you, but college is important to me.” Makoto's eyes dropped from Haru’s face to the ocean that was concealing his tail. “I never felt so helpless the day you were all cut up and bleeding. Going to college, learning there, means I would never have to feel that way again.”

Haru’s eyes snapped up to Makoto’s face, and Makoto was stunned by how vibrant they looked. It was almost like seeing them again for the first time. “You’re going… so you can learn how to help me?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Makoto said with a shy life as he scratched the back of his neck. He could feel a flush rising from his chest, and he tried his best to will it away.

“But you’re also leaving me,” Haru confirmed, lifting up so his shoulders were above the water with a confused expression on his chest. 

Makoto’s heart began to race. This was the nerve-wrecking part.

“Well, I can’t stay here,” he said slowly, eyes trained on his knees. “The university here doesn’t have the programs I’m looking for.” Haru turned his head away from him, and Makoto swallowed roughly before continuing. “But… there’s a university in Oikawa that would be really good for me. And it’s right by the water.”

There was also a really good university in Tokyo. One that would be less inconvenient for Makoto to move to, that would keep him closer to his friend and family. But Tokyo was nowhere near the ocean.

Makoto had made his choice - as long as Haru let him.

“By the ocean,” Haru repeated slowly, his eyes getting big with what Makoto was sure was hope. 

“I understand if it’s a big move,” Makoto said quickly, panicking as the reality of his request settled over him. “And you have friends and a life--”

“Most of my friends are gone,” Haru said, cutting Makoto off. Makoto blinked at him in surprise. “We all keep in touch, but Rin is just visiting before going back to Australia and Ikuya is across the ocean. I only stayed because you were still here.”

Makoto’s blush finally reached his face at Haru’s words. He felt Haru follow the flush with his eyes, and he felt himself heat up even more. 

“I want to stay with you as long as possible,” Haru said breathlessly the same time Makoto blurted out, “I like you so much, it’s a little terrifying.”

They both gaped at each other for a moment, before Haru was lunging at Makoto. Makoto was forced onto his back as the heavy weight of Haru’s body landed on him. He wheezed, but then all he could see was Haru’s face crowding over him.

“Do you want to stay with me too?” Haru asked softly, his breath ghosting against Makoto’s lips. Haru smelled like salt, and clean air, and home, and Makoto could live every day in the blue of his eyes and never, ever get bored of it.

“Forever,” Makoto replied, and then Haru was pressing his lips against Makoto’s in a bruising kiss. 

Neither of them noticed the sun sinking below the horizon. They had countless other sunsets they could watch together in the future. 


End file.
